A spirited debate on President Obama's first 100 days

President Barack Obama came into the White House in the midst of the worst economic crisis in 60 years, with two ongoing wars and pressure to restructure health care and education. How is he doing?

Grand Valley State University's Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies is sponsoring a debate between two journalists, The Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel and National Review's Rich Lowry. "President Obama's First 100 Days: A Debate" will be held Thursday, April 2, at 7 p.m., in Fountain Street Church, 24 Fountain St. NW, Grand Rapids.

The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. A live Webcast of the event will be available to the public for free at www.gvsu.edu .

“If you like debates that don’t devolve into a screaming match, you will enjoy Katrina vanden Heuvel squaring off with Rich Lowry,” said Gleaves Whitney, director of the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies. “These two giants of political commentary have strong opinions about where the nation is heading under President Barack Obama. Their clash of ideas will help us get behind the headlines.”

Katrina vanden Heuvel is one of the nation’s leading liberal commentators. She is editor, publisher and part-owner of The Nation — a weekly magazine and flagship of the left. She is editor of a half-dozen books and author of Meltdown: How Greed and Corruption Shattered Our Financial System and How We Can Recover. She is a frequent commentator on MSNBC, CNN and PBS and her award-winning articles have appeared in the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Boston Globe.

Richard Lowry has been called today’s “edgy voice of fresh-faced conservatism.” He is editor of National Review — America’s most widely read and influential conservative magazine. Lowry is author of the New York Times bestseller, Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years. He has written for the New York Times, Reader’s Digest, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal. He has guest-hosted “Hannity and Colmes” and “Fox & Friends.”

For more information, contact the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies at (616) 331-2770 or visit www.allpresidents.org .